The 90 Day Trial Period is one of the items under review with the Employment Relations Act Amendment Bill 2018.
Currently the proposal is simply removing the validity of its use from Companies with more than 19 staff. Nothing else is proposed to change for the trial periods at this stage.
For firms with 20 or more employees, the traditional 'Probationary Period' for new staff members will be the way to go.
This remains an optional clause in our Employment Agreements within the Employers Toolbox online.
We take this opportunity to mention a useful feature in our online tools also: 90 Day Trial Period Calendar alerts.
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The 90 day trial is 90 calendar days - not only working days. This can be less than 90 if you wish, but not more.
Our calendar reminder tool calculates the final day of this period, which can then be included in the Employment Agreement and also sets a reminder in the Employers Toolbox, or allows you to download to your calendar (Outlook, google etc)
The tool will set 2 reminders in the Employers Toolbox: one as a reminder 2 weeks prior to the end, and one for the day of expiry. For your own calendars it provides a calendar alert for the day with a reminder set at 2 weeks earlier.
This calendar tool appears in the Employers Toolbox when completing the schedule of personal terms in an Employment Agreement, in the Recruitment tools and also in the disciplinary process under the 90 Day Trial Period.
Non users of the Toolbox are welcome to use it also on this public web page: www.employers.co.nz/90day-trial-period-tools.aspx